The Letter
by Flounder En Flucter
Summary: Albus Dumbledore is a busy man. But a mysterious letter makes him even busier.


AN: I was inspired by all of these stories where somehow the Harry Potter books were sent to the past from the future or a person is somehow sent to the past to "fix" the future. Why not just a simple letter, that offers some proof and a plan. In the right hands it could take care of everything. So here it is.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting at his desk going over things for the upcoming 91-92 school year. He had to help Quirinus Quirell with his lesson plans because the man was a mess. He had a month to go before the first of September, but Quirell hadn't even finished one level's worth of lesson plans. Merlin damn this jinx on the position. That was just one problem.

The next problem involved Quirell's trip to gain experience through the continent and Africa made him worse for wear. He claimed to have had a run in with a particularly nasty vampire, which would explain the strange smell coming from the ridiculous turban he was now sporting. Even Albus himself thought it was a bit much, but Quirell claimed it was a gift from some tribe after he had dealt with a zombie for them. But the real problem with Quirell's trip was that it crossed directly though the area that Voldemort's disembodied spirit had been reportedly hiding, hopefully Quirell didn't run into it.

The next problem was that he had wanted to get someone who actually had experience in the muggle world into the Muggle Studies position, but the Board of Governors shot him down. They had made an edict saying that professors needed to be purebloods or well respected half-bloods. Ninety percent of the applicants were immediately shot down due to their edict, which only left the purebloods, none of which had actually met a muggle before.

He wanted to at least update the curriculum for the Muggle Studies classes but the board ignored his request for funding. Apparently it didn't matter to them that the material was out of date by fifty years at the minimum, which meant that it was probably a hundred years out of date, and only getting worse as each day passed. Hell most muggles alive today probably never even rode a horse, let alone remember a day when that was the norm.

The next problem was for a week now they had been sending letters to Harry Potter and there had been no response what so ever. They had sent over a thousand letters at this point but nothing. It was only then that he realized that for all intents and purposes that Harry was basically a muggle-born. He wouldn't have access to an owl, let alone know where he could gain access to one. He would have to send someone out to fetch the boy.

But that was another problem, every professor was out on leave currently. Minerva had just left to take her vacation, Filius takes five weeks starting in July so he was out, he wouldn't dare ask Severus, Pomona was in Australia on holiday, and the lesser professors would be gone until a week before term. Wait a moment, he could send Hagrid! That would work, he was sending him to Gringotts tomorrow anyways.

The next problem centered on the object that he was sending Hagrid to pick up from Gringotts. Nicolas Flamel had allowed him to bring it to the school to examine it and bring it to the school. But he needed to protect it while it's here. He'll have to have some of the teacher make protections for it. But he can't make them lethal, this is a school after all.

Next week he had to leave for an ICW conference in Spain. Which meant he'd probably need to get a few of the protections around the stone done as soon as it arrived. He could get Severus to make one right away and who else could get on such short notice? Hagrid, Hagrid had a love for fearsome beasts. He could have one of them guard the stone, in fact wasn't he boasting about acquiring a cerberus at some point in the last year?

He saw what looked to be an owl in the distance, he was glad that he had an owl redirection ward on his office. Unless something was extremely important, which was fairly often, the owls would get sorted out by the elves, who would check the letters for curses or other nasty surprises before bringing them to his "In" tray, which was always overflowing. It seemed no matter how much he did someone was always writing him a letter about something, wanting help with something, requesting an interview for something. As if, the only Britain based publication that he let interview him anymore was the Quibler, and that was mainly because Xeno amused the hell out of him.

He got back to work and within twenty minutes he was able to get the first three years of lesson plans done. That's all he'd do with those for now, he'd need something to occupy himself with between events at the ICW conference.

The owl that he had seen in the distance didn't get redirected, which meant that whatever this was, was important. Well important according to whoever sent it, so it could just be another letter from Molly Weasley about how Percival needs to be made a prefect. A bland looking tawny owl landed on his desk, right on the paperwork that he was about to look over, and stuck out his leg to be relieved of his burden.

He took the letter from the owl which promptly left his office, not making any mess beyond knocking a few papers off his desk. He waved his wand over it a few times doing some revealing and detection spells but nothing but a modified secrecy charm showed up. So whoever sent him this letter meant that it was eyes only. Only he would be able to read it and he would not be able to talk about it to anyone else. This possibly could be important, or it could be some woman sending a request for him to father her children again.

He opened the letter breaking a wax seal with no casting so he couldn't identify who sent it. Unrolled it, looked at the handwriting but couldn't place it or hadn't received anything from the writer before. It read,

_Albus too many names and titles Dumbledore,_

_You don't know me, so you have no reason to trust me. But for the sake of argument right now you will trust me. I have a list of things you need to accomplish before next June. _

_Sirius Black is innocent. Peter Pettigrew is alive and can be found hiding with the Weasley family in the form of a rat. This needs to be taken care of so you can accomplish another goal._

_Take a walk to the seventh floor to the corridor that has the portrait of Barnibus the Barmy. Walk passed three times looking for the room of hidden things. In the junk you will find many treasures which would be great finds, but you will also find the Diadem of Ravenclaw. DO NOT TOUCH THIS WITH YOUR BARE SKIN! Run a diagnostic spell over it looking for a human soul, you will find it contains one. Tom Riddle found this relic and used it to create a horcrux. DO THIS TONIGHT. It will convince you to trust me._

_Unfortunately dear old Tom didn't only make one. He's made several, the next that will be easiest to obtain then destroy is Tom's old diary. It currently resides in the hidden room under the drawing room at Malfoy Manor. The house will be empty on the 31st of July from 10am until 1pm. Fiendfyre to the house will destroy it. No one will be in the house, no one will know it was you._

_The cup of Helga Hufflepuff is in the vault of Bellatrix LeStrange. Yes it's another piece of the monster's soul. Tell the goblins about it, it classes over a level eight cursed object so the goblins are obligated to destroy it._

_The locket of Slytherin is in the drawing room of Number Twelve Grimmuld Place in a glass cabinet. You need Sirius to enter it, unless you use fiendfyre on the entire house, but then the entire block will go up._

_Marvolo Gaunt's ring is in his shack in Little Hangelton. Fiendfyre is the easiest way to go, it's not close enough to mess up any neighbors._

_The final piece in in Potter's scar. Ten thousand galleons to a goblin healer and it will be gone. _

_The only known ways to get rid of the soul pieces is an extremely expensive exorcism ritual. The cup and the diadem may be worth it to you, but not to others. The ring has too many protections that would probably kill you if you went after it. The locket is ugly anyways. The diary is meant to ensnare and posses the writer. If you destroy the pieces before June Riddle will be totally dead. No epic duel, the prophesy was fulfilled in 81. It will be over totally. _

The letter was unsigned. Albus was pale after reading it. He'd follow the directions and be rid of the monster in the next week. He'll get Harry Potter himself tomorrow, leave him while the ritual was taking place, burn down Malfoy Manor and the Gaunt Shack while it was taking place and be back in time for the boy to wake up. While at the bank he'd inform the goblins of the cup and make sure it was destroyed. Getting Sirius out of prison would be tough, he'd have to play up to Fudge that it was Crouch and Bagnold who were in office when that happened, catching Pettigrew as a rat would give them cause to question him under truth serum which would make things quite easy. He could do that in a few days.

He left his office with a smile on his face, a spring in his step, and a song in his heart for the first time in ten years. He had always been worried that the monster would come back and be just as terrible as before, but now with a few hours of work they could make sure that the next time his spirit left a body, it would leave this plane of existence forever. He didn't know who sent him the letter but he was glad they did, because now he could give the Potter boy an actual childhood and not hide him away with those awful relatives of his.

In June of that year a possessed Professor Quirell went after the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter still went after him. Harry and his friends fought through the surprisingly easy obstacles where only three were actually lethal, but they were only lethal if you were an idiot. Potter somehow killed Quirell by touching him and Quirell turned to ash, releasing the spirit of Lord Voldemort/Tom Riddle, which immediately destroyed it since it no longer had any anchors.

The world was far from perfect, but a major problem had been removed.

AN: Hope you enjoyed it. If you didn't I'm not sorry. Leave a review if you feel like it, maybe check out my other stories if you feel up to it. One is humorous, one is depressing, and the other is ongoing. Happy reading everyone.


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